Gaming Posts - Page 108

EA has had two big launches in recent months, with SimCity and Battlefield 4 taking quite a lot of flak in regards to being complete, working products when they launched.

But during an interview with Rock Paper Shotgun, EA's Chief Creative Officer, Rich Hilleman, talked about the launches of Battlefield 4 and SimCity, where RPS asked if EA was "overhauling how you approach launches internally from now on" to which Hilleman responded with: "I'm not sure I accept your premise. Battlefield 4 has been an exceedingly successful product on both consoles and PC. From a sales perspective, from a gameplay perspective".

Considering Battlefield 4 was, and is still broken for most people - the developer still says it was a successful product, both financially, and from a gameplay perspective. What do you think about that?

Batman: Arkham Origins has been plagued with issues since launch, and it appears that its developer, Warner Bros Montreal, has no plan on any further patches to fix the games remaining bugs. In a support post on the game's official forums, a developer revealed that the development studio is not planning any future patches to fix issues with the game. Instead, Warner Bros Montreal will focus on bringing new DLC to the game.

"Hi all, the team is currently working hard on the upcoming story DLC and there currently are no plans for releasing another patch to address the issues that have been reported on the forums," said the forum post. "If we do move forward with creating a new patch, it will try to address the progression blocking bugs for players, not the minor glitches that do not prevent one from continuing to play. The issues that are not progression blockers will unfortunately no longer be addressed. We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused for some of you, and want to thank you for having been patient."

The thread was quickly inundated with post from angry gamers, and rightfully so. When you spend upwards of $60 on a game and commit to different DLC packs at additional cost, you expect that the game will work out of the box, and expect any issues that may arise to be taken care of swiftly. This is just a small segment in a long list of games that have been released with lots of bugs in recent years which have either taken quite a while to address of even be addressed at all.

Blizzard has just pledged support for college gaming groups that are part of The eSports Association (TeSPA). Blizzard will begin offering cash, in-game bonuses, and promo material as groups continue to grow in size, too.

The help is coming as some gaming groups cannot get access to resources to host larger tournaments, which is why the World of Warcraft, Diablo and StarCraft developer is jumping on-board. Groups with over 200 members will even be greeted with special guests, which is a nice touch. This will only help the eSports community, and gamers as a whole.

Irrational Games has announced that BioShock Infinite Season Pass holders on Steam will soon enjoy some BioShock-themed items in the immensely popular Team Fortress 2.

What should we expect? Well, a Benjamin Franklin mask, a George Washington mask, and the Team Fortress 2 version of the Little Sister's Big Daddy Pocket Doll. These items will be very exclusive, being made only for BioShock Infinite Season Pass owners, and will come free in addition to all of the other content that pass holders receive.

The pass itself costs $19.99 and includes the Clash in the Clouds add-on, Burial at Sea - Episode One, Burial at Sea - Episode Two, and the Early Bird Special Pack.

Flappy Bird burst onto the scene, addicted thousands, and is now disappearing behind the shadows once again. Creator of the game, Dong Nguyen, has tweeted that he plans to "take Flappy Bird down".

He said he would take it down 22 hours after posting the tweet, which went live at 2:02pm EST. Nguyen clarified: "it's not anything related to legal issues," adding "I just can't keep it anymore". There's no exact reason behind Nguyen's reasoning for taking it down, as he also dismissed the idea of selling Flappy Bird, too.

Activision Blizzard has announced that over 15 million copies of Diablo 3 have been sold. The news comes thanks to the company's latest financial report.

The report also stated that World of Warcraft ended 2013 with 7.8 million subscribers, where it continues to be one of the world's most popular subscription-based MMORPG's. Shifting back to Diablo, Activision Blizzard Bobby Kotick says that the high Diablo 3 sale numbers is great as we head closer to Diablo 3's first expansion, Reaper of Souls, which gets released next month.

Destiny was one of the most talked about next-gen games of 2013 and as the games launch draws closer, Activision's CEO, Bobby Kotick, is speaking out about how successful he feels the franchise will be. Bungie, the company actually developing Destiny is working hard behind the scenes fine tuning Destiny to be this years best MMORPG/FPS on the next-gen consoles, and if the company can mold it into anything like it did with Halo, then Destiny's destiny may very well be a billion dollar franchise.

"We expect Bungie's Destiny, an innovative shared-world, first-person action game to be Activision Publishing's next billion dollar franchise," said Kotick. "As we look to 2014 and beyond, we have the strongest and most diverse pipeline of games in our history." From the trailers, screen shots, and information I have seen on Destiny, I have to agree with Kotick. With Halo stalling out there is a huge gap to fill for the sci-fi shooter genera and I think Destiny can do it.

Until now, Activision had Infinity Ward and Treyarch releasing Call of Duty games every year, but now the studio has asked for another studio to come in and help, with Sledgehammer Games joining in on the COD fun.

The company has said that the three studios will be involved within the Call of Duty franchise, on a three-year schedule, in order to maintain quality while pumping that many differing Call of Duty games out. With Call of Duty: Ghosts coming nowhere near Battlefield 4 in terms of a leap to next-gen gaming, it'll be interesting to see what is in store for Call of Duty this year, and going into the future.

The World Cyber Games professional gaming league will close up shop after being founded in 2000, despite being the largest global electronic sport tournament. WCG officials sent an e-mail that said no tournaments will be hosted in 2014, as the group declined in quality and frequency over the past few years.

"There are many great moments based on your dedication," said Brad Lee, WCG CEO, in a statement to partners. "Although the brand has disappeared but WCG spirit will remain forever in the hearts of each player and fans. This moment is very difficult and painful for me. However, I must say good bye to the WCG."

Both PC and console gaming remain popular, but the lure for companies to jump into professional gaming, especially if trying to broadcast it, is difficult because they likely don't anticipate immediate return-on-investment. Instead, the WCG continued to host appealing events that largely flew under the radar to casual gamers and even most of the hardcore gaming community.

Respawn Entertainment isn't spilling the beans on how to get in on the Titanfall closed beta, only saying that details will be publicly shared in the near future. Beta testers will need to receive an access code before testing the game, and isn't solely for gamers that pre-ordered Titanfall.

Titanfall will be available on the PC and Microsoft Xbox One game console in the immediate future. It's unknown when Respawn will begin the beta, though it's rumored to start on Friday, February 14.

Expect the game to be released on March 11 in the United States, and days later for the rest of the world.

Gamers might purchase a few different games that seem appealing, but Titanfall is one of the more anticipated PC titles of 2014. Publisher Electronic Arts needs the Titanfall game launch to go smoothly, as a few of its recent high-profile game launches had issues and frustrated gamers.